LOC Bites

Like I said yesterday, my sweet grandmother was Southern to the bone. One of her signature desserts was Chess Bars. It involved all of the staples for a Mississippi dish--butter, eggs, powdered sugar, and cream cheese. Not exactly for the faint of sweets. Sometimes she added lemon, but rarely. Usually the cake mix crust warrants the prominent flavor--BUTTER--but I thought it might be nice to jazz it up a little for my Waco friends.

I'm spending two weeks in Waco for Capstone class--let's hope these are the last classes of my life. I'm good with life long learning, but I need a break! After these two weeks, I'll present my research project for social work, wait a week, and then (hopefully) snatch up two diplomas. Glory, glory. But back to the sugar. Chess bars...with lime and orange...in mini muffin pans. Can these count as tarts? No, bites is much more technical and approachable.

The flop the first time around. Oops.

LOC Bites (Lemon Orange Chess)

gather 
yellow cake mix (the box)
3 eggs
1 stick butter, softened
1 box of cream cheese, softened (8 oz)
1 lb of powdered sugar
1 orange
1 lemon or lime

base Preheat oven to 350. Grease 24 mini muffin cups. In a bowl, combine a yellow cake mix, one egg, and one stick of margarine. Using a teaspoon, pat one teaspoonful of batter into each cup. Pat down with your fingers--this is the crust.

topper In a second bowl, combine cream cheese, 2 eggs, and 1 box (16 oz) powdered sugar together until smooth. A mixer smooths it out so well.

topper2 Split cream cheese mixture into two bowls. In one bowl, grate an orange and add the juice of less than 1/2 of the orange (2 TB). In the second bowl, add grate a lemon and the juice of 1/2 a lemon (2 TB). Whisk each of the bowls' ingredients separately.

assembly Using a teaspoon, spoon 1-ish teaspoon of the cake mix base in the bottom of each muffin cup. Press down with fingers, like it is a crust. Then, top with either 1 TB of the lemon or the orange filling. Bake for 13 minutes, or until the mini muffins are set and not Jello jiggly. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to the fridge for 1 hours.

Serve chilled. Share generously. Eat many.

Happy eating!
Laurel